The Stooges
The Stooges live in United Palace Theatre, New York (9 April 2007)
Review Snapshot:
Can old rockers still hack it live with a reputation that's been building
since their split in 1974? The Stooges blew the roof off a dusty old uptown
theatre.... Detroit style.
The CLUAS Verdict? 8.5 out of 10
Full review:
The first thing that struck me about this gig in the slightly run-down
United Palace Theatre was that it was fully seated. For a horrible moment I
thought I'd have to follow polite convention and sit through a rock & roll gig,
and not just any normal rock & roll show. The Stooges (or 'Iggy & the Stooges'
as they've been billed) have decided to comply with rock's own polite convention
and re-unite in recent years with the almost complete original line-up of Iggy
Pop (natch), brothers Scott and Ron Asheton on drums and guitar and new member
Mike Watt on bass, formerly of the Minutemen. Surprisingly three of the four
original members of the Stooges have survived to tell the tale, original bassist
Dave Alexander has since passed on.
Fortunately, as soon as they hit the stage - Iggy already bare-chested - the
whole audience took to their feet and remained there for the rest of the show.
Before he'd even uttered a word, Iggy had already climbed a Marshall stack
behind Mike, laid completely flat and just stared at the audience. And then,
from the other end of the stage Ron played the opening chords of 'Loose' and,
well, mayhem ensued. I was stuck in the balcony so I had to keep my comical pogoing to a minimum (but hey, at least I could stand) but got a good view of
the audience going crazy. Iggy dismounted and limbered up to the mic with that
half-walk, half-seizure he does and started to sing with that infamous sneer
that' has so defined this band.
The material throughout the show consisted of debut album The Stooges, Fun
House, Skull Ring and new album The Weirdness. When I asked why Raw Power
classics like 'Search & Destroy' or 'Penetration' (guaranteed to kill at any show)
weren't played, I was told that the James Williamson era material apparently
wasn't deemed suitable for the original band. That was disappointing, some of my
favourite tracks are on that album, but I didn't sweat it for too long. The
songs played from the debut album, most memorably '1969' and 'I Wanna to Be Your
Dog' sounded more muscular than the thin, incohesive albums tracks while the Fun
House songs were just as much of an onslaught as on the album. By the time they
played '1970', halfway through the set, I was gob smacked. They still sounded
like the loudest, nastiest rock & roll band that created the legend forty years
ago. Iggy, approaching 60, had unnatural amounts of energy. At times he was
playful with the audience (literally) but was just as likely to fix us with a
stare and scream like a maniac on the street.
During 'No Fun' he invited the whole audience to come up and dance with him,
about 150 of which complied, and continued to perform the song on the edge of
the stage as people jostled and pogoed towards him, grabbing his arms, hair,
jeans, everything, almost tipping him off the stage in the process. He took it
all in his stride and continued the song. Towards the end of the show, they
appeared to drop the set-list and Iggy just barked out songs with barely a few
seconds in between. The new songs were played with just as much conviction and
the pace didn't drop for a second.
A surprise addition halfway through the set was Steve MacKay, the saxophone
player on Fun House. His playing added a woozy, disorienting feeling to the wall
of distorted guitar, especially 'L.A. Blues' which disintegrated into a long aural
assault with Iggy screaming at the crowd. It was draining just listening to it
and yet the break in between sets was only a few seconds long, no sooner was he
off the stage than he was running back on, emptying bottles of water over his
head.
To hear some of these songs with the intensity that they were created almost
forty years after the fact is a rare thing these days. Ron Ashetons
gut-trembling guitar riffs still sound incredible and Iggy lived up to the
legendary reputation of a performer who thrives on chaos.
In short, it was the
gig I was hoping it would be and the legend of Detroit's Stooges lives on.
PeeJay
Check
out the CLUAS review of
Iggy Pop live in Dublin 2002. Check
out the CLUAS review of
Iggy Pop's 2002 album 'Beat 'em Up'
